Every year hundreds of thousands of teens age out of the foster care system. So how and why does this happen? To be honest, there\u2019s not a clear, concise or easy answer for why so many children age out of care, but here are just a few.<\/p>\n
Sometimes the cases begin when a child is much older and the case doesn\u2019t have time to come to fruition. Or a case just takes a long time and the child ages out before it is closed.<\/p>\n
Other times, a child is legally free for adoption but it\u2019s often difficult to place older teens in adoptive homes. The truth of the matter is many people don\u2019t envision themselves adopting a 17-year-old who is going to \u201cleave home soon\u201d anyway\u2026or so they think. Many people want to adopt an infant or younger child\u2026so teens age out without a forever family.<\/p>\n
And in still other instances, children are legally free but they choose not to be adopted. You may already know this, but I learned it fairly recently and want to help spread the word: in the state of Indiana, at the age of 14 (which seems so, so young to me to be making these kinds of life-changing decisions, but nobody asked me), a child can choose to pursue the collaborative care path, which provides support and training necessary for life after \u201claunching from foster care\u201d\u2026instead of choosing the adoption path.<\/p>\n
And all of this seems somewhat upsetting (at least to me it is!) for a child to not have a forever family\u2026but personally I believe the most unfortunate thing about children aging out of the system is that many of them don\u2019t have much (if any) family support at all as they move forward in life; clearly there are \u201coutliers\u201d who do, either who have biological family support or through former foster family, or (obviously) through some other source. But for those who do not, they can struggle with some social and emotional challenges in the future.<\/p>\n
And this leads me to the real facts I want to bring to light in my post today: of youth who age out of foster care, 1\/4 are incarcerated within 2 years and only 1\/2 graduate from high school.<\/p>\n
These two statistics share close ties with other social and emotional issues such as drug addiction and homelessness on down the line\u2026and I\u2019ll discuss these other issues more in a later post.<\/p>\n
Now to be clear, these statistics obviously show that not all is lost\u2026sometimes kids age out of the system and remain in the home of the foster family. This does not mean the foster family continues to receive a per diem or any financial support from the state; it simply means there is attachment and connection and bond between the child and family and although there may never be a formal adoption (although there can be\u2026adult adoptions are a real thing, in case you didn\u2019t know), they understand that they are one another\u2019s family and will continue to provide the emotional and tangible support as that of a \u201clegal\u201d family.<\/p>\n
Other times, kids age out of care and find their way back to their biological families\u2026which may or may not be a healthy support system for them; there are many factors which can determine which way it leans\u2026far too many to discuss in this post. But if you\u2019ve been around foster care for long, you\u2019ll obviously be aware of some of the factors which could make this either a healthy or unhealthy environment.<\/p>\n
And still other times, there may be a teacher, coach or some other adult in a foster child\u2019s life who can fill the role of \u201cparent\u201d and provide the support the child needs as they \u201claunch\u201d into the real world.<\/p>\n
But this, obviously, doesn\u2019t always happen. Teens age out often with government support\/collaborative care, but this is only for a set period of time\u2026and once they reach the end of collaborative care, they are out and facing the world on their own.<\/p>\n
I share this just to make people aware\u2026because it is something I don\u2019t think most people consider, as they step into foster care; I will freely admit that I, for one, did not.<\/p>\n
Teens (especially those who are free for adoption but choose not to be adopted) need caring adults in their lives\u2026whether the teens want to believe it or not. They don\u2019t know what kind of challenges they may face in the near and\/or distant future and sometimes what they truly need is the love and care of a family\u2026because without that, they are more susceptible to other life-changing issues or decisions.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Kris<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every year hundreds of thousands of teens age out of the foster care system. So how and why does this happen? To be honest, there\u2019s not a clear, concise or easy answer for why so many children age out of care, but here are just a few. Sometimes the cases begin when a child is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kriss-corner"],"yoast_head":"\n